Old Cedar Bugs

If you have been a constant visitor to Ecobirder you may have noticed that the number of posts featuring insects has decreased dramatically from a couple of months ago. That is because winter has arrived and early this year and days with high temps in the 30s are a bit of a problem for the insect community. So the only insects that I see these days are the occasional spider that Michelle, my wife, hollers about or once in a while a centipede that my kitten Misty is stalking with her mad bug pawning skillz. Don't worry though I am saving some bug picks to post through out the winter to continue to bring you as much variety as possible. One of the last time that I went out and photographed several insects was at the Old cedar Bridge area at the beginning of October (10-2).
All during the late summer and fall my bug photography was hampered by grasshoppers. Most of the places that I visited where filled with grasshoppers at that time of the year. As I would walk through the fields, or even down dirt paths, quietly stalking a butterfly or dragonfly grasshoppers would go flying from the grass in front of me. Like an early alert system they would startle my prey which would, very often, take off right before I got my shot.

Once in a while I would get lucky though and my subject would not notice the hoard of grasshoppers fleeing before my gigantic size twelve hiking boots. Like this cabbage white butterfly who was too intent on sucking the nectar out of this flower to notice my approach.
This eastern tailed blue did not even flinch when it came face to face with my 9" Canon zoom lens.

Woolly bear caterpillars are a sure sign of fall. During the falls months, like October, they quit their eating and look for a sheltered place to hibernate for the winter. When the temps warm up again and spring arrives the woolly bear will wake up and spin a cocoon. A couple of weeks later they will emerge as an isabella tiger moth.

My World: Old Cedar Ave Bridge

For this weeks edition of My World I would like to take you for a visit to a part of the Minnesota Valley NWR. The Minnesota Valley NWR is a 14,000 acre refuge that stretches 45 miles along the Minnesota River Valley from Bloomington to Bell Plain, MN. It is comprised of 8 different units, Black Dog, Bloomington Ferry, Chaska, Long Meadow Lake, Louisville Swamp, Rapids Lake, Upgrala, and Wilkie. The most visited unit in the refuge is Long Meadow Lake. The Long Meadow Lake unit consists of the 2400 acres of floodplain forest, ponds, marshes and bluffs surrounding the lake. Because of its size Long Meadow is typically divided by many of us who visit into several distinct areas distinguished by a unique landmark. My post is about one of these areas.

The Old Cedar Avenue Bridge still spans Long Lake and the Minnesota River, although it is closed because age and decay have made it dangerous to cross. This old corpse of iron and steel marks the area commonly called, and with good reason, the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge area. The road that once connected two thriving Twin Cities suburbs now dead ends into a parking lot where you can leave your car and hit the trails.

The trails wind around several ponds that have formed off from the river and lake. Some of the ponds, like this one, even have viewing platforms to allow people to get a little closer to nature.

The numerous ponds are home to waterfowl, like mallards, Canadian geese, and wood ducks during summer. During the spring and fall other types of waterfowl, like this American coot, often stop by while migrating.

During the warm summer months the ponds are also home to many fish and reptiles, such as this painted turtle who is trying to work his way up on to a floating log to get some sun.

The ponds are also a great place to find many different types of insects. In the early summer the air around the ponds are filled with pond dwelling dragonflies like this common whitetail.

As you head south, from the parking lot, on the Bluffs Trail don't forget to hang a left and head out onto the board walk that runs through the tall reeds of the flood plain and ends out on a viewing platform on Long Lake.

While on your way to the viewing platform it is common to see or hear common yellowthroat, rails, and red-winged black birds living in the reeds. From the viewing platform you can often see lots of waterfowl as well as wading birds, like this great egret, out on the lake.

As you continue south, on the Bluffs Trail, you will pass over streams and through marshes and floodplain forest as you begin to climb up the wooded river bluff.The woods are home to many birds and animals. Deers, squirrels, raccoons, and other mammals scurry across the forest floor while many birds, such as robins, redstarts, orioles, and yellow warblers like the one above, fly from tree to tree.

During the spring and fall the woods are even more alive as migrating birds, like this black-throated green warbler, stop to feast on insects and new growth.
Other birds, like this golden crowned kinglet, who may winter in the area leave for breeding territories further north as spring arrives.

If you instead decide to take trail that heads north, from the parking lot, you will find yourself circling around several of ponds and through some open fields. In spring and summer the fields become a painted canvas of blooming wild flowers. The bright yellows, pinks, purples and reds attract butterflies like this cabbage white.The flowers also attract several different types of bees, such as honey bees, green bees, yellow jackets, and bumble bees. This portion of the refuge ends at the new Cedar Avenue Bridges. The trail continues on underneath these concrete monsters over to the Bass Ponds portion of the Long Meadow unit but that is the subject of a future My World post.

Birding at Old Cedar Avenue

The next weekend in July found me back down at the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge / Bass Ponds. The birding that day was a bit slow but I still managed to find a couple of birds to photograph.
The bright yellow color of a male goldfinch, in breeding plumage, stood out pretty well against a backdrop of green algae. The American goldfinch is one of the more common birds seen here in late summer. This is probably due to the fact that it is a late nester, nesting in late June or July when most other passerines are already done. Last year I got some great goldfinch shots on the thistle by one of the ponds, but the higher water level this spring prevented the thistle from growing back in that spot. So I have not had the opportunities to photograph goldfinch that I did last year. I also managed to get a pic of a great crested flycatcher. Usually great crested flycatchers are found at the top of the trees so I felt fortunate that this one came down so that I could get a pick. I had spotted them several times around the Bass Ponds so I am guessing that at least one pair nested in the area, wooded swamps would be prime breeding habitat.

Old Cedar Butterflies

The flycatchers, swallows, and warblers at Old Cedar have quite a smorgasbord of insects to choose from. Besides the mosquitoes, Minnesota might be the land of 10,000 lakes but we are also home to about 10 billion mosquitoes, flies, which have been so bad this year that I have actually seen deer flies down in the cities, dragons, damsels, spiders, and other insects there have are also a few butterflies. This year it seems that there are not as many butterflies as last year but usually I see a couple while I am out in the wilds.
In June at Old cedar I found a couple of butterflies to photograph. The first one, above, I believe is a European skipper. Skippers are tough to ID for new butterfly enthusiasts like myself, but using my autographed Kaufman Field Guide to Butterflies of North America I have concluded that this is the European skipper. If any of the experienced butterfly enthusiasts believe that I need to have my eyes examined let me know.
Incidentally I do need to go in for an eye exam, part of being a diabetic is annual eye exams, besides since my near vision has gone to hell since I got my current glasses. Which makes it difficult to see the camera LCD when you are taking pictures of butterflies like this hackberry emperor.
The hackberry emperor is a brush-footed butterfly that can be found through out most of the eastern half of the US as well as the south west and Mexico. They are fast, erratic fliers that are typically drawn to sap, rotting fruit, carrion, and dung. They often rest perched upside down on the trunks of trees. They get their name from the one of the larval host plants which is hackberry, the other host plant is sugarberry.

Flycatchers and Gnatchers at Old Cedar

The dragonflies at Old Cedar Bridge need to be wary. While they are predators and spend much of their time on the hunt for other insects there are larger predators who would certainly enjoy a nice plump dragonfly for dinner. Near the ground and in the water there frogs, lizards, spiders and fish that the dragons need to worry about, but even more dangerous are the flying predators. These include bigger dragons, warblers, waterfowl and flycatchers among others.
The great crested flycatcher can be found through out most of the eastern half of the US during the summer. They spend a majority of their time in the treetops, rarely coming down to the ground. As their name suggests they spend a good deal of their time hunting flying insects. When the weather turns cold in North America, and there are no more insects to eat, these birds migrate down to Central and South America where they spend the winter.

Another insect eating bird that I have photographed near the Old Cedar Bridge is the blue-gray gnatcatcher. The blue-gray is the northern most occurring member of the gnatcatcher genus. Most other gnatcatchers spend their lives in neotropic regions. The blue-gray spend its summers in the middle portion of the US with southern Minnesota being on the northern edge of its range.
Since the blue-gray is the only gnatcatcher that breeds in a more northern climate it is also the only gnatcatcher that truly migrates. During the winter the birds that come north migrate down to southern California, Florida, Mexico and the Bahamas. Since they are quite a bit smaller then the great crested flycatchers they would tend to eat many of the smaller insects, this can include spiders, lady beetles, mosquitoes, flies, small damselflies among other insects.

Old Cedar dragonfly

I apologize in advance for this short post. Today has not been exactly fun. After work I had to come home and replace the bathroom sink which has been leaking. Plumbing is not exactly my forte but I managed to get it replaced alright. When I finally finished I sat down to do some work on the computer but my main PC would not power up. Fortunately I have another PC that I can use but I spent most of the rest of this evening trying to get my main machine up and running. I am hoping that it is only the power supply so I will buy and new one and try replacing it tomorrow. For today I leave you with a couple of dragonfly that I photographed at Old Cedar Bridge at the end of June.

Common white tail
Male twelve-spotted skimmer.

Hopefully things will be back to normal tomorrow because it sounds like the weather is going to be very cooperative this weekend and I would prefer going out to staying home and building a new computer.

Barn Swallows at Old Cedar Bridge

Well yesterday was my birthday and it was kind of a let down compared to last year. Since the 12th landed on a Tuesday this year I ended up working both jobs yesterday so I did not really get to go out and do anything fun. In comparison my birthday last year fell on a Sunday so Michelle and I went birding out and Crex Meadows and then rescued an injured bald eagle that we found there. For my new friends who may not have been reading the blog back then you can find the details of that story HERE. While I was going through my back log of photos trying to get ready for today's post I though that these picks would have been more appropriate for yesterday, baby swallows on my birthday, but I don't have a Delorean with a flux capacitor so I guess that you will have to enjoy the pics today.
This Spring and early Summer there were a number of barn swallows nesting under the boardwalk that leads to the Minnesota River overlook near the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge.
The habitat is pretty swampy with a lot of bugs to help support a growing barn swallow family.
The boardwalk protects the nests from the elements as well as nosey human with long lenses.

When I visited in late June I found that one of the nestling had become brave enough to venture from the nest and was now on the ground near the side of the boardwalk.
The little guy, or girl who knows, was standing on the root system of some swamp plant that was sticking out above the water level.
It was fun to watch as the chick would open his mouth, peep, and beg, every time one of the adults would fly by.
It was old enough to fly on its own but still relied on its parents to bring it food.
And the adults were very good at hunting down insect to bring to the hungry little chick. I watched for over an hour, it was very fascinating. It was so fascinating that I returned to photograph them again a week later but I will save that for another post. It is dangerous to post to many babies in one post it might make my readers go into cute overload.

Birding at Old Cedar Avenue Bridge

During the summer I spend a lot of time at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is divided into several different units. The unit in which I spend most of my time is called the Long Meadow Lake Unit. Long Meadow Lake consists of the Bass Ponds, the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge and the Russell Sorenson Boat Landing. Most of my time is spent either at the bass ponds, which is mainly open space which surrounds several ponds, of the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge. The Old Cedar Avenue Bridge area has several trails that run through the wooded hill that surround the Minnesota River.
Near Old Cedar there is a small boardwalk that takes you out to a viewing platform in the Minnesota River. The boardwalk is surrounded by reeds and cattails which are home to many different birds such as red-winged blackbird, marsh wren and yellowthroat, like the one pictured above.
On the wooded trails you can see a variety of passerines. Some of the birds that I have seen here include, catbirds, sparrows, flycatchers, goldfinch, and warblers like the yellow warbler pictured here.
I always enjoy photographing yellow warblers they always appear so bright and cheerful, like a big yellow happy face. Its especially nice to post on a special day like a birthday.

The Bass Ponds that I Misplaced

Since I have not been able to go out and do much birding lately, due to the very poor weather we have been having, I spent some time going through pictures. On one of my memory cards I found these pics that I took on March 29th at the Bass Ponds and Old Cedar Ave Bridge in the Minnesota Valley NWR that I forgot to post.
By the Old Cedar Ave Bridge I found a few American robins eating shriveled up berries from the bushes. Last fall I photographed cedar waxwing eating berries from similar bushes near the bridge.
I also found a cooperative white-breasted nuthatch doing what nuthatches do, climbing down a tree.
Over at the bass ponds there were some coots.
The catch of the day were 3 northern shovelers, 2 males and 1 female. These where the first shovelers that I had seen so far this year.
They were in the mud flats that border the Minnesota River. Much of the water was still frozen, at that point, so they were forced to stay close to the park where the open water was. This kept them with in a good range and allowed me to get some descent shots.

Birding and politics on a Saturday afternoon.

On July 11th I received an e-mail from the Minnesota Ornithologists Union about an upcoming rally at the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge on July 14th. The purpose of the rally was to show the state politicians, who were visiting the site, that they should help to fund a plan to replace the bridge. The bridge, which stretches across the Minnesota River, was replaced with a new bridge in 1979. It was closed to vehicular traffic in 1993 and to pedestrians and bicycles in 2002. As you can see by the picture below the bridge is in extremely poor shape.

So you may be wondering what an old bridge has to do with birding and the Minnesota Ornithologists Union, well this bridge extends through the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. This bridge was used by many birders to get a great view of the Minnesota river flood plains and mud flats before it became unsafe to use.
Now politicians in the cities of Bloomington, who currently owns the bridge, and Eagan, which is on the opposite side of the river, as well as several state politicians have put forth a plan to tare down the existing bridge and build a boardwalk platform on the existing cement supports. The problem is that the estimated cost is $4.5 million. A large part of that cost is for the removal of the existing bridge which contains lead so that it can not be knocked down conventionally. So far the supporters of the plan have secured $1.3 million in funding but still have a long way to go. That is why 200 or more people of all types (birders, bicyclists, hikers, and families) showed up on the 14th to show our support for this great cause. At the program, which began at noon, they had speakers ranging from local and state politicians, leaders of bicycle groups, neighbors, and leaders from MOU, Minnesota River Valley Audubon, and Minnesota Audubon.

I arrived at the park at 8:30am and spent my time waiting for the speakers program on the trails birding. The Old Cedar Avenue Bridge is a part of the Long Meadow unit of the Minnesota Valley NWR. There are a total of 8 units in MV NWR which follow the Minnesota River and stretch from Bloomington in the north to Jordan in the south. I walked all the trails north of the bridge. As I started from the bridge parking lot I saw an american redstart who had just caught itself some breakfast.

As I continued on I spotted several goldfinch near the bass ponds, which was once used to raise fish for stocking Minnesota lakes. This one was pulling the seeds out of the pods of the wildflowers when a bee ran smack into his head. Boy did he give that bee a dirty look.

Near the same pond I also saw this ruby-throated hummingbird.

I also saw several sparrow, some green heron, and some great blue heron. Then I went to the south of the bridge to check out the small boardwalk which goes out to the lake. There I saw a couple of great egret as well as tree and barn swallows.

I also took a couple of butterfly pics like this one of a common sulfur
and this eastern comma which looks like it had seen better days.
When I was walking back off the boardwalk I was startled by a white tail doe. She just sat and watched me as I walked past about 4 feet away.
This was the only deer that I saw which surprised me because on my trips to Fort Snelling State Park, which borders the park in the north, I have seen plenty of deer. It turned out to be a great morning and afternoon. I got out, did some birding and helped lend my support for a good cause.